Small Agency of the Year: Why agencies should apply, and why CMOs should care
At Mercer Island Group, we love agencies. The best agencies, with the best clients, can drive immense returns on a client’s investment and can change the entire future direction of brands and companies for the better. We not only love agencies, but we also love agencies of all sizes. And there is a special place […]
An update for CMOs on the US agency landscape
The holding companies have come roaring back from the pandemic, reporting strong year over year organic growth. WPP just reported +12% year over year organic growth for 2021. Publicis, Omnicom, Interpublic and Dentsu each reported year over year organic growth exceeding +10%. In a big industry, that is a great deal of added revenue! All […]
5 Questions CMOs should be asking their agencies
The economy is robust. CMOs everywhere remain as busy as ever. There is as much stress on growth and results as ever. Agencies are expected to produce more with less. The unique bond between senior marketer and agency remains one of the keys to success! Great agency relationships can help make a career, a hit […]
The Easiest Skill to Learn with the Highest Return
What one skill can everyone master that has high returns, is easy to implement and can require zero investment other than a little bit of your time? We recently held another Mercer Island Group strategic insight training workshop. Strategists and agency execs from all over attended. They worked on some real world, real client challenges […]
How to watch Super Bowl ads like a CMO
The world’s annual football and advertising celebration is just days away! Globally around 150 million people will watch the Super Bowl. Roughly 100 million people in the US alone will watch! The event is one of the world’s weirdest annual affairs including the spectacle of the game, the personalities involved, big ticket half-time performers and […]
Forrester’s 2022 Predictions: Key takeaways for CMOs and agency leaders
The team at Forrester recently released their annual “predictions” report covering 2022. And they followed up their report with a helpful webinar. This is an important report with a number of observations that are worth considering. The key overview is spot on: “In 2022, the new normal will be more new than it will be […]
CMO tips to get ahead of 2022 agency cost inflation
Agency costs are escalating rapidly. There are a number of reasons for this including a labor shortage, intense competition for the same people from a number of other industries (consulting, tech, clients), the great resignation, increased training needs, increased operating and technology costs and overall inflation. We are seeing and hearing about double digit cost […]
Marketers and agency execs can kick off 2022 with this reading
Marketers and agency execs lead crazy, always-on lives. It’s hard to carve out time every week to stay current and to think ahead. Don’t worry – we’ve got you covered! We’ve assembled a number of our favorite articles that might help you get a head start on 2022. What are the basic “truths” that can guide […]
Barry O’Neil named to executive leadership role at Mercer Island Group (plus his advice to marketers and agencies!)
As we look ahead to what undoubtedly will be another exciting (crazy!) year, we are delighted to announce that Barry O’Neil has been promoted to an executive leadership role at Mercer Island Group. In his role as Director, Barry will continue to lead major client and agency engagements while overseeing the building of even better […]
Mercer Island Group’s Lindsay O’Neil named to executive leadership role (plus her advice to marketers and agencies!)
Marketers and agencies face both exciting and very tough challenges as they exit 2021 and look ahead to the new year – and Mercer Island Group’s Lindsay O’Neil will continue to be there to help guide their success. Lindsay has been promoted to an executive leadership role at Mercer Island Group and will be continuing […]